There are many types of knives and other hand tools such as limb saws that have a blade that is longer than the handle. This is particularly true of fillet knives. While there are many different sizes and styles of fillet knives, if there is any one characteristic that is common to almost all fillet knives, it is that the blade is relatively flexible compared to many other types of knives. By making the blade so that it is capable of flexing, the knife is especially useful to cut—that is, to “fillet”—fish and other types of meat. As noted, another characteristic of many fillet knives is that the blade is longer than the handle. The longer blade allows the knife to be useful in cutting larger fillets.
It will be appreciated that where a tool such as a fillet knife has a blade that is longer than the handle, if the knife is made into a folding knife then at least some length of the blade necessarily extends beyond the butt end of the handle. This presents several problems, since the portion of the blade that extends beyond the handle should be protected with some type of a blade guard to prevent the user from exposure to the blade when not in use. As a result, there are very few folding knives that use blades that are longer than the handle.
An old knife known as the Marbles Safety Knife was an example of a folding knife that was manufactured in the early 1900s that a blade that was longer than the handle. In the Marbles knife, an arm pivotally attached to the handle near the butt end could be swung out to cover the exposed part of the blade when the knife was closed. When the blade was opened, the arm could be swung the other direction and the arm served as a lock for the blade.
The present invention relates to a folding tool that has a blade that is longer than the handle. The tool incorporates a blade guard that shields the blade when the knife is folded. The blade guard is longitudinally slidable in a slot in the body of the tool. The tool also incorporates a lock mechanism for securely locking the blade in the open position, and for releasing the lock to allow the blade to be folded back into the closed position.